TEC program director applauded

News

The under-representation of Latinos in fields like computer science and engineering troubled Watsonville TEC director Jacob Martinez and led him into a career where he teaches technology to students as early as the fifth grade. Watsonville TEC (also known as ITEST project Animando a Estudiantes con Technologia) is an after school program that will be in 14 Watsonville elementary and middle schools this year.For his efforts, Martinez will be

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'Savvy' tech students coming from Watsonville schools

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Watsonville High junior Stephanie Barraza won a national award for Aspirations in Computing from the National Center for Women and Information Technology in December. Barraza was one of 35 young women selected for the honor from more than 1,110 applicants, and she is just the next in a long line of Watsonville TEC graduates to garner accolades. Watsonville schools are quietly becoming a stronghold of young computer programmers, thanks to a small

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Camp features oldest and newest things

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Northeastern Montana middle schoolers have just completed a unique camp that ties the allure of finding dinosaurs to the magic of technology. Guided by teachers who were a part of the ITEST Paleo Exploration Project, young people discovered a triceratops frill, the rib and tooth of a Tyrannosaurus rex, what is possibly a new flowering plant for the Cretaceous period, and the scientific method over the course of two one-week summer camps.

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Dinosaurs - an ancient bridge to new learning

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30 middle school teachers from 20 Eastern Montana schools are participants in the ITEST Paleo Exploration Project, created in partnership between the University of Montana and Fort Peck Paleontology. As part of this project, teachers go through several 2-day intensive trainings on using GPS units and GIS software; over summer, they will bring students to one of two summer institutes where they will do real, scientific work on fossil material that

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Spatial Analysis of Fossil Sites in the Northern Plains: A Unique Model for Teacher Education

Publications

Understanding science and technology is key to our next generation’s success. Conveying the excitement of science and effectively melding it with technology in both field and classroom settings can be a challenge for many K–12 educators. Middle school is a critical juncture in a child’s educational experience, when interest in science and technology is budding. If this interest is captured, it can lead to a lifetime of learning and, for some, a rewarding profession.

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Teen girls discover digital technology as ‘COMPUGIRLS’

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Dr. Kimberly Scott is the principal investigator and creator of a National Science Foundation-funded ITEST project COMPUGIRLS, an innovative technology program designed to teach girls of color how to use technology to bring about social change. She was concerned with the low participation of young women from higher needs school districts in STEM, so Scott developed COMPUGIRLS from a program she initiated at Hofstra University in New York.

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Changing the High School Culture to Promote Interest in IT Careers

Publications

Interviews with high achieving middle school girls enrolled in a math and technology summer program showed that one fourth of the girls were interested in careers in IT. The girls were interviewed four years later when they were in high school. We found that all of them were still interested in math and most of them were taking, or had taken, advanced math courses. However, only several were taking or had taken a computer science course and only one girl expressed interest in pursuing a career in IT. They showed a general lack of information about computer science, computer scientists and

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Bridging Barriers: Using Technology to Attract, Retain, and Mentor the Engineering Workforce of Tomorrow

Publications

Today’s technology-based global economy places a high premium on STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) education. Educators committed to increasing the interest and achievement of females in engineering struggle to find appropriate resources. The Gender and Science Digital Library (GSDL) from Education Development Center, Inc., (EDC) is a unique on-line collection of exemplary resources aimed at encouraging girls and women to pursue science and engineering education and careers. Participants will receive an on-line tour of the GSDL and a hands-on look at exemplary

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Building a Foundation for Tomorrow: Skill Standards for Information Technology

Publications

Building a Foundation for Tomorrow: Skill Standards for Information Technology, is a cooperative effort of the NorthWest Center for Emerging Technologies, the Regional Advanced Technology Education Consortium, the Washington State Board for Community and Technical Colleges, the Washington Software and Digital Media Alliance (WSDMA), and the Society for Information Management (SIM).The goal of this Advanced Technology Education project was to identify voluntary skill standards that reflect industry expectations in information technology career clusters and which can be used to:Improve the

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